University of Debrecen

Conference on Contemporary Russian Literature

2019. December 16. - 15:31A two-day, international, Russian language conference was organised at the Russian Centre of the Institute of Slavonic Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Debrecen on 5-6 December, with the title „The artistic language of the contemporary Russian novel”.

The conference focuses on contemporary Russian literature with a linguistic and stylistic approach to the topic. Experts from the University of Pécs, The University of Szeged, the Károly Eszterházy University of Eger, Moscow State university, Herzen University of St. Petersburg, the University of Presov of Slovakia, as well as the Linguistic Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences gave presentations at the event.

- We are all familiar with the great Russian novels, we know what a strong cultural tradition they represent in Hungary even today. But it is not only the classical „great” Russian novels that continue to be popular in Hungary. Many of us have grown up reading Russian classics but we are simultaneously also readers of contemporary Russian literature, Péter Csatár said in his welcoming speech.

The vice dean of the Faculty of Humanities, UD, stressed: There is no better venue for a conference like this than the Russian Centre working at the University of Debrecen, with an important misson to provide physical and intellectual space for events like this one.

This is the eighth time that representatives of the field have met one another. Previous conferences have also been hosted by Moscow and Budapest along with Debrecen.

- The conference presents the major works, trends, and results approached from different aspects, providing an opportunity for teachers, researchers, literary translators, and students to familiarise themselves with the field, József Goretity, Director of the Institute of Slavonic Studies in charge of the organisation told hirek.unideb.hu.

– Students continue to be interested in the Russian language with about one hundred of them pursuing their studies as Russian majors in basic, master’s and Ph D training, the Director of the Russian Centre added.

Alisa Ganieva from Dagistan, who started her career as a literary critic, came to the conference as a guest writer. By now she is one of the major representatives of Russian new realism. The writer read out excerpts from her own writings to those present as a closing event of the conference on the second day of the conference.

Similarly to the practice of previous years, the presentations of the conference will soon be published by the organisers in a book.